The Barrumbi Kids
Annotation from the NCACL Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource.

In this first book of The Barrumbi kids Series, the reader is introduced to the remote community of Barrumbi, in which the characters live. The main focus is on Dale, whose grandfather was one of the first white settlers in the area and Dale’s best friend, Tomias, whose family are the traditional owners of the land.

Dale is the more inclined to challenge rules and Tomias often has to provide a steadying influence. Nonetheless, the book starts with the two boys wagging school from a classroom overseen by Miss Wilson, a somewhat rigid teacher who is unable to adapt to the different needs of children in such a remote school. The adventures the boys get into are very much tied up with the countryside – getting caught in the middle of a burn-off, for example.

Indigenous knowledge is celebrated throughout the book and often provides a means for the plot to develop. In addition, the complexities of Indigenous relationship systems are recognised. At the end of the book Dale and Tomias are at the end of the available schooling in this remote community meaning they will have gone away for further schooling thus establishing the link to later books in the Barrumbi series.

The book was Shortlisted for NSW Premier’s Literary Award Patricia Wrightson Prize 2003 and Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards: Book of the Year – Young Readers 2003.

Leonie Norrington is not Indigenous herself but grew up in a remote Indigenous community, rather like Dale in the Barrumbi books.

See:
NCACL’s Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource for additional teaching material.

See also:
The Spirit of Barrumbi
Leaving Barrumbi

Posted by: NCACL | Published: 24 Nov 2022